Jj is for Jottings 136. Developing Auditory Processing Skills.
Following on from the article on auditory skills, we turn to the topic of developing auditory processing skills. An article on communication milestones from 12 months to 5 years can be found here. But now we will explore the development of auditory processing skills in a little more detail.
One general way of developing auditory processing skills is to read to your children.
Jj is for Jottings 125. Nonsense Words.
Nonsense words are letter sequences which follow regular phonetic rules and are pronounceable, but which have no meaning. Examples are ‘bof’, ‘zim’, ‘chog’. They can also be called nonwords or pseudowords. There are stages in children’s development where nonsense words may play a part. These are: babbling, early reading, rhyming, and if they require assistance for speech sound development (speech therapy). All children babble, but children may not encounter nonsense words when learning to read or to rhyme. And many will not need speech therapy, or have access to it if they do.
Atticus is a FAN of nonsense words.
Jj is for Jottings 121. A Noun is a Name.
A noun is a name. But there’s a bit more to it than that. A noun is one of several parts of speech, which also includes verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions and even interjections. Although they are called parts of speech, they are really units of language, but we won’t try to go against the flow on that issue. The difference between speech and language is explained here. I can’t tell you how many times I have been requested to do a speech assessment, when language was really the issue. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 102. Effect of Vowel Shapes on Consonant Sounds.
Following on from the previous article on Vowel Shapes, we will talk about the effect of vowel shapes on consonant sounds. This is especially important in sound production for speech therapy and also useful when learning sound-letter links. If you haven’t already done so, I suggest you read the previous article first, to make sense of what follows.
Effects of vowel shapes on consonant sounds. This vowel is /ah/. It doesn’t have much effect on any consonant sounds because it is quite neutral in shape.
Here are some common examples of how the vowel shape can influence the production of a consonant. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are major examples which crop up all the time. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 101. Vowel Shapes.
When I say “vowel shapes”, I am referring to the shape made by the mouth when saying a particular vowel. We have talked earlier about discriminating between vowels and vowel discrimination activities, but I didn’t mention vowel shapes because we were talking about auditory discrimination. The visual aspects were not necessary in that context.
In point of fact, there are no hard and fast vowel shapes, but there are general trends which are useful to know about. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 93. Consonant Clusters.
Consonant clusters, or blends, can cause problems when analysing sounds and blending. Children with speech, language or literacy problems often have difficulty in detecting the second sound in a consonant cluster. I mentioned this in a previous article on blending sounds. Children who can easily analyse a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word, may completely disregard the second sound in a consonant cluster (CCVC). This is even when they say the word correctly. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 88. Hearing Loss Effects on Speech, Language and Literacy.
Hearing loss effects on Violet’s speech, language and literacy? None, because at this stage there is no evidence to suppose that Violet has a hearing loss. And Simon is certainly getting her off to a flying start with speech, language and literacy by reading “Aa is for Alpacas” to her.
Moving on from discussing fluctuating hearing loss in the previous article, we now turn our attention to the effects of hearing loss on speech, language and literacy. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 87. Fluctuating Hearing Loss.
Fluctuating hearing loss in young children often results in speech and language delays. (For an explanation of the differences between ‘speech’ and ‘language’ see here.) Figures quoted by the Audiometry Nurses Association of Australia Inc suggest that 90% of childhood hearing loss is of the fluctuating kind. For figures for Australian 4-5 year olds having a speech problem from any cause see here. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 86. R-Controlled Vowels and Diphthongs.
There are other vowel sounds, apart from the short and long vowels. These include r-controlled vowels, schwa and diphthongs.
“Some of these r-controlled vowels and diphthongs are quite tricky to get your tongue around – if you’re an alpaca.”
When a vowel is followed by r, the sound changes, and the result is considered neither long nor short. These are /ur/ as in fern, bird, and hurt; /ar/ as in park; and /or/ as in fork.
Note that Americans actually pronounce the /r/ in r-controlled vowels, including on the ends of words; we Australians do not. When I was first working as a speech pathologist Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 84. Vowel Discrimination Activities.
Vowel Discrimination Activity 3. Identifying /i/ and /e/.
As promised in the previous article, here are some vowel discrimination activities to help your child to hear the difference between vowel sounds, in particular the tricky pairs of a/u and i/e. At the same time these activities reinforce the sound-letter links for the vowels. After all, it’s not much use for reading and spelling if you can hear the difference between them but don’t know which letter belongs to the sound. Continue reading
